From the top: Scheduling difficult for prep programs

Sunday

Sep 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2013 at 12:15 PM

The Wolfpack are a Class C prep school and Saucier said football is “a dying breed” in small prep schools. Kimball Union Academy stopped offering the sport two years ago. Vermont Academy isn’t playing this year and a couple of other schools in the New England Prep School Athletic Council are “really close” to not having football any longer, according to Saucier.

Marc Allard

Just before the high school football season began, Hyde School athletic director and football coach, Sean Saucier, made an interesting observation.

Both Griswold and Woodstock Academy are playing prep schools during the season this year. Both the Wolverines and Centaurs picked up Hamden Hall and Woodstock will also play Kingswood-Oxford, leaving the Centaurs just nine CIAC-sponsored games.

Saucier said, if the opportunity presented itself, he “would love to play a public school.” Not only would it help the public schools fill a sometimes troublesome schedule, but it could also help Hyde fill its schedule in the future.

The Wolfpack are a Class C prep school and Saucier said football is “a dying breed” in small prep schools. Kimball Union Academy stopped offering the sport two years ago. Vermont Academy isn’t playing this year and a couple of other schools in the New England Prep School Athletic Council are “really close” to not having football any longer, according to Saucier.

The reason?

“First and foremost is the concussion phenomenon going on. The awareness and the risk,” Saucier said. “It turns a lot of families away. That awareness is driving kids to say, ‘maybe not.’ ”

That and there are more activities being offered by the prep schools that lure students away from football.

Saucier said saving football is a hot topic of discussion among prep athletic directors and coaches and it’s why schools such as Hamden Hall are reaching out to the public schools for games.

It’s not shocking.

Prep schools, outside of the “athletic factories,” tend to have parents and students who are more academically-inclined and more watchful of SAT scores than points on a scoreboard. Most don’t need a sport to pay for their college education as evidenced by how much is being paid for their high school education. You have to look at it this way, too, ACL injuries heal, brain injuries — not so much. It may be the most popular sport in America now, but football has its issues.

n It’s great to see Griswold High School playing soccer on the newly-sodded field in the middle of the campus. The Wolverines used to play on the old football practice field where balls ended up in the woods or down the briar-infested hillside over a less-than-adequate fence. Then, there was the field itself.

“They had bonfires out there before Thanksgiving so there was big, huge dirt patches. It’s not even,” Griswold girls’ soccer coach Chris Morth said. “The field is not perfect, but this is amazing compared to what we’ve been on the last three years.”

n I wrote down the time (10:24 p.m.) when my compatriot, Owen Poole, announced in the office on Wednesday that the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs. See ya next year!

n Here’s a thought I had. Pete Rose was banished from baseball for life for betting on the game. Alex Rodriguez has been suspended for 211 games (wow) — now under appeal — for allegedly making a mockery of the game by cheating and allegedly trying to get others to do the same. Rest in peace, Bart Giamatti.

n Kudos to the Tigers staff for allowing the NFA and Bacon Academy boys and girls soccer teams to play at Dodd Stadium.

“This is the ideal surface to play the game on,” Eastern Board soccer official Colin Redhead said. “The bounce is truer, the whole game is different than it is on astroturf.”

It worked well for the girls, but the width and length of the field did play a role in the boys contest. The keepers were able to punt from box-to-box and the teams and officials, at times, had problems keeping up with the pace it created.

n One more Dodd Stadium note: I was asked this week if there’s such a thing as portable goal posts. A CIAC quarterfinal football game at Dodd? Somehow, I feel, if it could be done, the Tigers might try and do it.

n This is how I envisioned Bill Holowaty’s exit as head baseball coach at Eastern Connecticut State University would take place rather than how it all went down this past spring. On Oct. 20 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., there will be a “Celebration of 22,” (Holowaty’s jersey number) at Maneeley’s Banquet Facility in South Windsor. For more information, you can contact Steve Kenton by email at kenton@easternct.edu.